Thursday, March 30

100 best first lines?

Languishing in my inbox for some time: 100 Best First Lines from Novels (via kottke). A few thoughts:

Mostly the usual suspects.

This one took me by surprise:

46. Ages ago, Alex, Allen and Alva arrived at Antibes, and Alva allowing all, allowing anyone, against Alex's admonition, against Allen's angry assertion: another African amusement . . . anyhow, as all argued, an awesome African army assembled and arduously advanced against an African anthill, assiduously annihilating ant after ant, and afterward, Alex astonishingly accuses Albert as also accepting Africa's antipodal ant annexation.  —Walter Abish, Alphabetical Africa (1974)

This list shows a preference for avant-garde and philosophical first lines.

What do you think (especially you, Jason)?

No comments: